Volodymyr Zelensky made the statement in a video address to the nation on Tuesday night, the Ukrainska Pravda website reported.
The Ukrainian president said, as quoted by Ukrainska Pravda: “The Ukrainian Army is making quite fast and powerful progress in the south of our country within the ongoing defence operation."
According to Zelensky, “dozens of settlements” subjected to Russia’s "sham referenda" have been liberated this week; this applies to the southern Kherson region as well as the eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions, in addition to gains made in the northeastern Kharkiv region.
Zelensky announced that in the Kherson region, the Ukrainian army had retaken Liubymivka, Khreshchenivka, Zolota Balka, Biliaivka, Ukrainka, Velyka Oleksandrivka, Mala Oleksandrivka, and Davydiv Brid, Ukrainska Pravda reported.
Zelensky stated: "Our soldiers do not stop. And it is only a matter of time when we banish occupiers from our whole land."
Ukraine making gains in the south, advancing in the east: ISW
Zelensky’s assessment was echoed by the Institute for the Study of War, which published its latest report on Tuesday night.
The US think tank said: “Ukrainian forces continued to make significant gains in Kherson Oblast while simultaneously continuing advances in Kharkiv and Luhansk oblasts on October 4.”
According to the ISW, “Ukrainian forces liberated several settlements on the eastern bank of the Inhulets River along the T2207 highway, forcing Russian forces to retreat to the south toward Kherson City.”
Moreover, Ukrainian forces "also continued to push south along the Dnipro River and the T0403 highway, severing two Russian ground lines of communication (GLOCs) in northern Kherson Oblast and forcing Russians south of the Kherson-Dnipropetrovsk Oblast border toward the Beryslav area,” the US experts reported.
The ISW added that, according to Ukrainian military officials, “the Ukrainian interdiction campaign is crippling Russian attempts to transfer additional ammunition, reserves, mobilised men, and means of defence to frontline positions.”
The Washington-based think tank also said that Ukrainian forces “continued to advance east of the Oskil River in Kharkiv Oblast, and Russian sources claimed that battles are ongoing near the R66 Svatove-Kreminna highway.”
“Ukrainian army wants to advance on Luhansk’
Meanwhile, Gen. Waldemar Skrzypczak, a former commander of Poland’s Land Forces, said that the Ukrainian army “wants to advance on Luhansk.”
Speaking in an interview with Polish state news agency PAP, Gen. Skrzypczak said on Tuesday: “The Ukrainians want to advance in the direction of Luhansk, to give the lie to all the referenda and pseudo-referenda that Putin had ordered, as well as to his declaration to incorporate this territory to the Russian Federation.”
“The Ukrainian army is yet to deliver a decisive attack,” he added.
Wednesday is day 224 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, understandingwar.org, pravda.com.ua